Tens of thousands of teachers who qualified since the Tories entered Downing Street have left the profession, according to Labour analysis.

Of the 141,000 teachers who qualified between 2010 and 2015, more than 35,000 have left, with a decline in real-terms pay a potential factor, shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said.

Ms Rayner said there was a “crisis in teacher recruitment and retention”.

An analysis of Department for Education data by the House of Commons Library, commissioned by Ms Rayner, shows that on the government’s figures, the average teacher was around £4,000 worse off in real terms in 2016 compared with 2010.

Ms Rayner said: “Even the Tories themselves now admit that they have left teachers thousands of pounds worse off, so it is no wonder they have created such a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention.

“Having missed their own recruitment targets five years in a row while teachers leave the profession in record numbers, it seems that Tory ministers now recognise that their pay policies are making things worse in our schools.”

Labour also highlighted an almost fivefold increase in the number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England effectively waiting for a place in education since 2010.

SEND children ‘denied quality education’

She claimed cuts meant children with SEND were being “unfairly denied” the right to a quality education.

In 2010, 776 children (0.34 per cent) with a SEN statement or Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan were awaiting education provision, but this figure increased to 4,152 (1.62 per cent) in 2017.

“Ministers have slashed funding for local authorities and introduced the first cuts to school budgets in a generation,” Ms Rayner said.

“This is not without consequence: it is having an enormous impact on a schools’ ability to adequately support children with SEND to safely and happily enter and remain in the education system.”

And Ms Rayner pointed to House of Commons library analysis showing a real-terms cut of £1.2 billion in 16 to 19 education spending since 2010.

The House of Commons library figures for 16 to 19 education showed a cash cut of £600 million between 2010-11 and 2016-17, but when inflation is factored in that amounted to a real-terms cut of £1.2 billion.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The fact is there are 15,500 more teachers in our classrooms than in 2010 and more teachers are joining the profession than leaving.

“Teaching continues to be an attractive profession with average wages of £37,400 outside of London, rising to £41,900 in the capital.

“We want to continue to attract the best and brightest into teaching and recently the education secretary announced a retention and recruitment
strategy to help do just that.”
 

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